As we edge ever closer to the end of the season, we find Iron Fist making some sort of attempt at a comeback with an assault of villains and some long overdue references to a comic the show was supposed to be adapting all along. However, while I’ll give credit where it’s due, and you can honestly tell that the show is straining to right itself, not even a metric ton of reveals, betrayals and easter eggs can help the Immortal Iron Fist crawl out of the hole he’s dug for himself.
Seemingly hoping that flipping Danny Rand’s life around even further (like it wasn’t flipped enough) will equal gripping drama, “Black Tiger Steals Heart” gets to work dismantling the established status quo with grim determination – however, the powers that be seem to have forgotten a very important fact: the show’s status quo wasn’t particularly great to begin with, so trashing it is hardly about to bring gasps of shock. However, what it replaces that status quo with is the true issue of the day here.
After Danny’s previous clash with the Hand brought about some major changes, he awakes later in a strange bed next to a fully healed Colleen. Not only has Madame Gao finally been taken off the board, but Danny has discovered that there are different ways he can use his Iron Fist powers other than just punching holes in things, and he finds that he’s now a guest of Bakuto’s academy. Especially happy that Danny is here is Colleen, who has been keeping this secret for a while, and not only does her sensei have more words of wisdom, he shows Danny devastating proof of what the Iron Fist could truly be with his help.
However, after sneaking into restricted areas to have a chat with an imprisoned Gao, Danny discovers the rather alarming fact that Bakuto is actually another leader of a different incarnation of the Hand. But while Colleen attempts to convince Danny that this is a “good” variation of the ninja cult, back at Rand Industries, Joy is still trying to get her head around the fact that her father had faked his death for twelve years. But while the resurrected Harold undertakes underhanded measures to get his ousted kids back at the top of Rand Industries – eg. murder – he finds that he’s essentially swapped one Hand jailer (Gao) for another (Bakuto).
When Danny realises that there’s literally no one he can trust, and Colleen is actually an agent of the Hand, it emotionally effects the would-be protector of K’un-Lun to the extent that he can’t even ignite his chi to activate his Iron Fist anymore. Thankfully, impatient and bad tempered help is at hand in the form of Davos, Danny’s childhood friend who has come to take him back to K’un-Lun to fulfill his destiny. But after back to back betrayals, can our easily bamboozled hero shake off a nasty stab wound and escape Bakuto’s academy?
I’m not entirely sure if the sudden influx of new characters is a desperate attempt to shake some life back into the series, or a way to further expand the canvas in order to pave the road for the Defenders miniseries, but for the most part, none of it really works. As it stands, by the end of episode ten, we seemingly now have no less than four arch villains, all carrying different levels of importance. There’s Madam Gao, obviously, who is reduced to pulling that whole “imprisoned bad guy act” after being locked away by Bakuto’s people; and then there’s the resurrected Harold Meachum, who is trying to keep a lid on all the worrying mood swings that apparently come with the territory of coming back from the dead. But in addition to these two established antagonists, it’s now been revealed (barely an episode after his benevolent introduction) that Bakuto is also a bad guy after Danny discovers that Colleen’s teacher is actually the head of a rival branch of the Hand that has similar goals to Gao, but takes a far less “evil” route to get it. However, there’s a feeling that despite there already being a log jam of wrong ‘uns, the breaking bad of Bakuto seems weirdly rushed after an entire episode of him offering up helpful tips to help Danny be a better Iron Fist. In fact, what’s extra frustrating is that while he teaches Rand to charge up his chi faster (something that show desperately needs as Danny only pulls out the Fist about once per episode), it’s immediately nullified when Rand loses his powers due to all the betrayal heaped upon him. Yep, yet another Netflix/Marvel show has decided to play the “depowered hero” card in lieu of creating actual stakes, and while there’s plenty of fighting and drama involved, you’d think that the split between Danny and Colleen would be more shocking than it actually ends up being.
However, there’s still germs of life sneaking around the episode. Gao still gives off plenty of sinister Hannibal Lecter vibes despite now only being a face on a computer screen and Bakuto’s grainy footage of a past Iron Fist tearing apart a squadron of soldiers is the closest we’ll probably get to a comic accurate costume. However, while we’re fully stocked with villains, the arrival of Davos (aka. the Steel Serpent) means that the show feels like it’s making sure it has some future foils for our hero once this season, and the Defenders, finish their various runs. However, despite the fact that Iron Fist now technically has four main villains, it’s truly weird how little connection the main character actually has with them. Despite a harsh conversation with Gao, she’s still neutralised in jail; Danny’s only just met Bakuto; he has still has absolutely no clue that Harold’s insane; and Davos actually isn’t even a bad guy yet (I predict an episode thirteen heel turn), which means there’s a startling lack of drama going on despite the fact that Danny’s supposedly at his lowest ebb.
While I appreciate the show frantically trying to switch things up as the episodes tick away, the fact it’s all gotten so convoluted means that you tend to miss the good old days when the Hand were primarily just a bunch of scary ninjas getting on Daredevil’s nerves. Similarly, I’ve now completely lost all interest in anything that’s occuring at Rand Industries, and it seems that Claire Temple has now vanished from the show just as abruptly as she arrived. It’s actually ironic, because for most of its run, I’ve been calling for Iron Fist to draw more overtly from it’s comic book origins, but now that a bunch of characters have now actually turned up, the show just seems more muddled than ever before. With only three episodes left to go, any hope of a last minute salvation seems about as likely as Luke Cage cutting himself shaving, or Frank Castle turning to pacifism…
A concerted effort to embrace the source material a little more tightly results in a miasma of villains that all fail to make an adequate impact on a hero so incompetent, he’s actually done most of their work for them. Thankfully we’ve only a handful of episodes left to endure before we can finally give Iron Fist the death blow it’s seemingly begging for.
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Where to watch Iron Fist – Season 1, Episode 10: Black Tiger Steals Heart: